January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Deconstruction

January 4, 1876: the Mississippi legislature of 1876, the first former-Confederate-controlled legislature since the start of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, successfully campaigned on a promise to restore law and order through harsher penalties for “black lawlessness” in the state. They were encouraged by the recent success of convict-leasing pioneer Edmond Richardson in the Yazoo Delta region, who in 1868 had entered into a contract with the state to lease prisoners as labor to rebuild his lost cotton fortune. Many legislators saw the model as a perfect solution: convict leasing would simultaneously provide workers to the state’s labor-starved employers, earn revenue for depleted state coffers that could not otherwise afford to maintain the state prison, and provide a means of controlling the state’s recently-freed and largely impoverished black majority.

One of the new legislature’s first acts was to pass the “Pig Law,” which broadened “grand larceny” – an offense punishable by up to five years in state prison – to include theft of any farm animal or any property valued at ten dollars or more. White legislators knew the law would disproportionately affect the state’s black citizens, many of whom remained unemployed and resorted to robbing farms to feed themselves and their families. Within three years, the number of state convicts tripled, from 272 in 1874 to 1,072 in 1877.

The Mississippi legislature soon also passed the Leasing Law, authorizing state prisoners to be leased to “work outside the penitentiary in building railroads, levees or in any private labor or employment.” The law formally codified the practice of convict leasing, and the legislature soon proceeded to lease more than 1000 of its prisoners – the vast majority of them black – in contracts to employers across the state.

Convicts leased to private employers regularly did hard, dangerous work in appalling conditions, sleeping on bare ground and often wearing nothing more than the tattered clothing in which they arrived. Like masters over slaves, employers had broad authority to whip convicts for offenses such as “slow hoeing,” “sorry planting,” and “being light with cotton.” Those who tried to escape were whipped until blood ran down their legs, and sometimes even had metal spurs riveted to their feet.

Under the lease system, employers also had little incentive care for the convicts; if one dropped dead of disease or exhaustion, a replacement was easily obtained from the local jail. “Before the war we owned the negroes,” one Southern employer explained in 1883. “If a man had a good [slave], he could afford to take care of him; if he was sick, get a doctor . . . But these convicts: we don’t own ‘em. One dies, get another.” In the 1880s, the annual mortality rate for Mississippi’s convict population was sometimes as high as 16 percent. (see Mar 27)

Negro National League

January 4, 1920: Andrew Rube Foster organized the first black baseball league, the Negro National League. (see Jan 23)

Dyer anti-lynching bill

January 4, 1922: debate on the Dyer anti-lynching bill got under way in the House despite a determined filibuster on the part of its Democratic opponents. Three hours were spent in roll-calls demanded by Representative Garrett of Tennessee, the Democratic leader, in a futile attempt to head off discussion. (BH, see Jan 12; Dyer bill, see Jan 26; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Rosewood Florida riots

January 4, 1923: hundreds of white men began the burning of Rosewood, Fla. Within three days, the entire African-American town had been burned to the ground. By the time the violence ended, six African Americans and two whites had died. No one was ever prosecuted. Survivors later recounted that Fannie Taylor had made false accusations against Jesse Hunter to conceal her extramarital affair with a white man. In 1994, the Florida Legislature voted to compensate victims and their families. (next BH, see Feb 7; next Lynching, see Feb 19; next RR see March 19, 1935; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner

January 4, 2014: Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 2005 for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to look again at his motion for a new trial. (see Murders for expanded chronology)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 4, 1904: the Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the United States freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them U.S. citizens. (see February 23, 1904)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Farmers Holiday Association

January 4, 1933: angered by increasing farm foreclosures, members of Iowa’s Farmers Holiday Association threatened to lynch banking representatives and law officials who instituted foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Great Depression. (see Mar 4)

Alphabet Workers Union

January 4, 2021: after years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies,.more than 225 Google engineers and other workers announced that they had formed a union

The union’s creation was highly unusual for the tech industry, which had long resisted efforts to organize its largely white-collar work force. It followed increasing demands by employees at Google for policy overhauls on pay, harassment and ethics, and was likely to escalate tensions with top leadership.

The new union called itself the Alphabet Workers Union after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was organized in secret for the better part of a year, and elected  its leadership in December 2020. The group is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents workers in telecommunications and media in the United States and Canada. [NYT article]  (next LH, see  Apr 9)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

Dirk De Jonge

January 4, 1937: a member of the Communist Party, Dirk De Jonge had organized a public meeting on July 27, 1934, where he was arrested. He was then convicted of violating the Oregon Criminal Syndicalism statute, which prohibited advocating the overthrow of the government.

In De Jonge v Oregon, The Supreme Court ruled that convicting him for simply conducting a meeting violated the First Amendment.

In retrospect, the decision on this day was an early sign that the Supreme Court was beginning the process of becoming a strong defender of civil liberties, which it did under the “Roosevelt Court” from 1937 to 1945.(see April 26, 1938)

STUDENT ACTIVISM 

January 4, 1965: the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, held its first “legal” rally after a long series of protests, demonstrations, and arrests in the fall of 1964. See especially October 1, 1964, and December 2, 1964, for two of the most important events in the dramatic struggle in the fall of 1964. The FSM had been sparked by the university’s promise to “strictly enforce” its ban on on-campus recruiting for off-campus political activity on September 16, 1964. The rally on this day was “legal” in the sense that the university had agreed to abandon the policy and respect the free speech rights of students. Folk singer Joan Baez performed at the rally. (FS, see April 26; SA, see Dec 16)(see Student Free Speech Movement for more)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAY

January 4 1948: Burma independent from the United Kingdom. (see Feb 4)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

see January 4 Music et al for more

Elvis Presley

January 4, 1954: while still working as a truck driver, Elvis Presley went to the Sam Phillips’s Memphis Recording Service in Memphis, TN, to record a song for his mother’s birthday which was many months away. He recorded “It Wouldn’t Be The Same Without You” and “I’ll Never Stand In Your Way.” This was this recording that would lead Phillips to call Presley back to record for his Sun Records label. The receipt is dated Jan. 6, but the date of the recording was Jan. 4 (see Apr 12)

El Paso

January 4 – 17, 1960: “El Paso” by Marty Robbins #1 Billboard Hot 100. First of three #1 songs in a row in which a person or persons die.

South Pacific

January 4 – 10, 1960: the Soundtrack to South Pacific is the Billboard #1 stereo album.

Kingston Trio

January 4 – February 14, 1960: the Kingston Trio’s Here We Go Again album is Billboard’s #1 mono album.

Bobby Vinton

January 4 – 31, 1964, “There! I’ve Said It Again” by Bobby Vinton #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Doors

January 4, 1967: The Doors release first album, The Doors.

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestones

Hand-held calculator

January 4, 1972: the first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).

Color TVs

By the end of 1972: more than half (52.6%) of American households had a color TV set. (see April 3, 1973)

Burj Khalifa

January 4, 2010: Dubai opened the world’s tallest skyscraper, the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa. It cost $1.5 billion. (see Jan 27)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

January 4, 1974: citing executive privilege, Nixon refused to surrender 500 tapes and documents which have been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. (see Watergate for much more)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

January 4, 1975: The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Congress passed the Native American Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act which repudiated the policy of tribal termination that began on August 1, 1953. Termination was a policy by which Native-American tribes were dissolved as independent nations, their status before termination. The policy of termination was intended to help Native-Americans assimilate into the mainstream of American life. President Richard Nixon repudiated the tribal termination policy on July 8, 1970. (next Native Americans see June 26, 1975)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

January 4, 1976: the Ulster Volunteer Force killed six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day 10 Protestant civilians are murdered in retaliation. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Kent State Killings

January 4. 1979: an out-of-court settlement was reached in the civil cases and approved by the Ohio State Controlling Board with a vote of 6-to-1. Shortly after the board announced its decision, the judge in the U.S. District Court in Cleveland dismissed a jury that had been called to hear testimony in a second trial against the state.

The plaintiffs receive $675,000 for injuries received in 1970 and this compensation is accompanied by a statement from the defendants, which reads in part, “In retrospect the tragedy of May 4, 1970, should not have occurred…We deeply regret those events and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and the wounding of nine others which resulted.”

The settlement, according to the plaintiffs, “accomplished to the greatest extent possible under present law” their main objectives, not the least of which was financial support for Dean Kahler, who has been paralyzed.

Also sought by plaintiffs was a statement signed by Rhodes and 27 National Guardsmen who were defendants in the case.

The statement, read in court, said: “In retrospect, the tragedy of May 4, 1970 should not have occurred.” It also noted that students protesting the Cambodian invasion by U.S. troops “may have believed they were right” in continuing their protests in spite of a university ban on rallies and an order for the students to disperse. The statement went on to note that those orders had been upheld as “lawful” by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The statement continued: “Some of the guardsmen on Blanket Hill (the campus area where the violence occurred), fearful and anxious from prior events, may have believed in their own minds that their lives were danger. Hindsight suggests another method would have resolved the confrontation. Better ways must be found to deal with such confrontations.

“We devoutly wish that a means had been found to avoid the May 4 events culminating in the Guard shootings and the irreversible deaths and injuries. We deeply regret those events, and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and wounding of nine others which resulted. We hope that the agreement to end this litigation will help assuage the tragic moments regarding that sad day.”

Settlement of monies were distributed as follows:

Dean Kahler, $350,000 Joseph Lewis, $42,500 Thomas Grace, $37,500 Donald MacKenzie, $27,500 John Cleary, $22,500

Alan Canfora, Douglas Wrentmore, Robert Stamps, James Russell, $15,000 each Families of the four students slain, $15,000 each Attorneys fees and expenses, $75,000.

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ & AIDS

January 4, 1982: at a meeting in his living room in New York City, playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer and a small group of friends decided to form the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) organization to address the emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic. When someone said, “We have a gay men’s health crisis,” Kramer reportedly exclaimed, “That’s our name!” (GMHC timeline)  (LGBTQ, see Jan 28; AIDS, see Apr 13)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Sexual Abuse of Children

January 4, 2007: the Spokane diocese in Washington agreed to pay at least $48 m as compensation to people abused by priests. (see July 15)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

January 4, 2007: the number of women serving in the U.S. Senate reached an all-time high of 16 and Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker of the House , the first woman ever to hold the post. (NBC News article) (see August 8, 2009)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

January 4, 2017:  Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department had withdrawn federal guidelines that effectively limited prosecutions of businesses and individuals who sold pot in a legal manner under state law, even though the drug remains illegal under federal law. Sessions said future prosecutions would be up to individual U.S. attorneys.

The memo reminded prosecutors that “marijuana activity is a serious crime…[and]that] stricter enforcement by prosecutors will help tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country.”

Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, where voters approved recreational marijuana in 2012, and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, where pot was decriminalized in 2003 and legalized recreationally since 2014, both denounced the Sessions announcement. (next Marijuana, see Jan 11;  expanded Cannabis chronology, see CCC; Justice Department, see April 13, 2018)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

Environmental Issues

January 4, 2017: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposed a sweeping new offshore drilling plan aimed at opening huge swaths of the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans to oil exploration.

The draft plan released includes 25 of 26 offshore planning areas and mafr available for lease roughly 90 percent of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The administration had identified 47 potential lease sales, including 19 off the coast of Alaska and 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, Zinke told reporters (see Jan 8)

January 4 Peace Love Art Activism

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

William Tucker

January 3, 1624: the baptism of William Tucker, the first African-American birth recorded in Jamestown, VA.  His parents, simply Anthony and Isabella, were two of the first Africans brought to North America in 1619 (perhaps as indentured servants). They married and in 1624, gave birth to the first black child born in English America. He was named after his family’s master, Captain William Tucker.(see September 17, 1630)

NAACP report

January 3, 1947: an NAACP report said 1946 was “one of the grimmest years in the history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” The report deplored “reports of blow torch killing and eye-gouging of Negro veterans freshly returned from a war to end torture and racial extermination” and said “Negroes in America have been disillusioned over the wave of lynchings, brutality and official recession from all of the flamboyant promises of post war democracy and decency.” (next BH, see Jan 15; next Lynching, see July 14, 1948; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

January 3, 1956: because of drastically reduced ridership during the boycott, Montgomery City Lines suggested to the city commission that unless fares were doubled, it would have to shut down because it was losing as much as twenty-two cents a mile.  The Commission approved the fare increase the following day. (see Montgomery for much more)

Samuel Younge Jr

January 3, 1966: twenty-one-year-old Tuskegee Institute student activist and veteran Samuel Younge Jr spent the day registering black voters in Macon County, Alabama. He stopped at a gas station to use the restroom. The white attendant, 68-year-old Marvin Segrest, directed him to the “colored” restroom out back. When Younge said he wanted to use the regular public restroom, Segrest threatened to shoot him.

Younge reported Segrest to the police, then returned to the gas station and told Segrest the police were coming. The two men argued and Segrest shot at Younge, who hid in a bus. When he exited the bus, Segrest shot him in the head, killing him.

The shooting exacerbated tensions in Tuskegee between African Americans and pro-segregation whites. The day after the shooting, Tuskegee students launched protests that lasted for weeks.

In December 1966 an all-white jury took 70 minutes to acquit Segrest.

Today Younge’s name is carved on the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, a tribute to the 40 people who were slain between 1954 (the year the U.S. Supreme Court banned school segregation) and 1968 (the year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination). (see Jan 7)

Shirley Chisholm

January 3, 1969: Shirley Chisholm, became the first black woman in Congress. (see Jan 23)

SOUTH AFRICA/APARTHEID

January 3, 1994: more than 7 million people received South African citizenship that had previously been denied under Apartheid policies. (see Apr 27)

Hurricane Katrina

January 3, 2007: seven New Orleans policemen charged in a deadly bridge shooting in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina turned themselves in at the city jail, and more than 200 supporters met them in a show of solidarity. Each of the indicted men faces at least one charge of murder or attempted murder in the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the hurricane hit New Orleans. Two people died and four were wounded in the shooting. (see Katrina for expanded chronology)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

In the late 1800s, the United States government sought to “Americanize” the Indian population by forcing Native American children into white schools, often far from their homes and families. In 1887, the government established Keams Canyon Boarding School and pressured Native American parents from the Hopi tribe to enroll their children. Hopi families that complied with the government’s order and sent their children to school were deemed “Friendlies,” while those who refused were branded “Hostiles.” When most parents refused to part with their children voluntarily, the government resorted to force, sending soldiers to round up children and send them to Keams Canyon.

At the same time, tensions were rising regarding the limited land that the government had allotted to Indian tribes. In October 1894, fifty Hopi returned to farm on land that had traditionally belonged to their tribe. The U.S. government, claiming to act in defense of the rights of Friendlies, responded by ordering troops to arrest the Hopi leaders. Justifying the order for military involvement, one government official wrote that “[t]he Friendlies must be protected in their rights and encouraged to continue in the Washington way. . .”

On January 3, 1895, the US govern met imprisoned nineteen leaders from the Hopi tribe  on Alcatraz Island,  in the San Francisco Bay.  The government charged them with sedition for opposing the program of forced education and assimilation. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that “[n]ineteen murderous-looking Apache Indians” had been arrested and taken to Alcatraz, “because they would not let their children go to school.” The paper added that they “have not hardship aside from the fact that they have been rudely snatched from the bosom of their families and are prisoners and prisoners they shall stay until they have learned to appreciate the advantage of education.” The Hopi leaders were imprisoned in the wooden cells of Alcatraz for nearly one year. (see May 18, 1896)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

ADA

National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis

January 3, 1938, President Franklin D Roosevelt [a victim of polio at age 39 and paralyzed from the waist down and forced to use leg braces and a wheelchair for the rest of his life] helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, later renamed the March of Dimes. The organization was responsible for funding much of the research concerning the disease, including the Salk vaccine trials. (polio, see April 26, 1954)

Hitler’s so-called mercy killings

In 1939: at the onset of World War II Adolph Hitler ordered widespread “mercy killing” of the sick and disabled. Code-named Aktion T4, the Nazi euthanasia program is instituted to eliminate “life unworthy of life.” Between 75,000 to 250,000 people with intellectual or physical disabilities are systematically killed from 1939 to 1941.

Rosemary Kennedy

In 1941: John F. Kennedy’s twenty-three year old sister Rosemary underwent a prefrontal lobotomy as a “cure” for lifelong mild retardation and aggressive behavior that surfaced in late adolescence. The operation fails, resulting in total incapacity. To avoid scandal, Rosemary was moved permanently to the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children in Wisconsin.

Rusk Institute

In 1948: Dr. Howard A. Rusk founded the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York City, where he developed techniques to improve the health of injured veterans from World War II. His theory focused on treating the emotional, psychological and social aspects of individuals with disabilities and later became the basis for modern rehabilitation medicine.

Committee on Employment of the Handicapped

In 1950: in the 1950s, disabled veterans and people with disabilities begin the barrier-free movement. The combined efforts of the Veterans Administration, The President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, and the National Easter Seals Society, among others, results in the development of national standards for “barrier-free” buildings.

Association for Retarded Citizens

In 1950: parents of youth diagnosed with mental retardation found the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC). The association works to change the public’s ideas about mental retardation. Its members educate parents and others, demonstrating that individuals with mental retardation have the ability to succeed in life.

Fernald School

In 1953: Clemens Benda, clinical director at the Fernald School in Waltham, Massachusetts, an institution for boys with mental retardation, invited 100 teenage students to participate in a “science club” in which they will be privy to special outings and extra snacks. In a letter requesting parental consent, Benda mentions an experiment in which “blood samples are taken after a special breakfast meal containing a certain amount of calcium,” but makes no mention of the inclusion of radioactive substances that are fed to the boys in their oatmeal. (Waltham testing, see (see December 31, 1998; radiation testing, see October 17, 1995)

American National Standards Institute

In 1961: the American Standards Association, later known as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), publishes the first accessibility standard titled, Making Buildings Accessible to and Usable by the Physically Handicapped. Forty-nine states adapt accessibility legislation by 1973.

Ed Roberts

In 1962: Ed Roberts, a student with polio, will enroll at the University of California, Berkeley. After his admission was rejected, he fought to get the decision overturned. He became the father of the Independent Living Movement and helped establish the first Center for Independent Living (CIL). He earned B.A. (1964) and M.A. (1966) degrees from UC Berkeley in Political Science. Roberts died on March 14, 1995, at the age of 56. (see  October 31, 1963)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

January 3 Music et al

Sam Phillips

January 3, 1950: Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. The Memphis Recording Service let amateurs perform, which drew performers such as B.B. King, Junior Parker, and Howlin’ Wolf. Phillips then would sell their performances to larger record labels. In addition to musical performances, Phillips recorded events such as weddings and funerals, selling the recordings. (see Memphis Recording Service for more) (see March 3 or 5, 1951)

Beatles on Jack Parr

January 3, 1964: the “The Jack Paar Show,” aired a filmed Beatles’ performance of “She Loves You” from England.  It was the first complete Beatles song shown on American TV, and for many in America, the first time they saw the Beatles. (see Jan 10)

Psychedelic Shop

January 3, 1966: the Psychedelic Shop head shop opens on Haight Street, S.F.  (see Head Shop for more)

 Bob Dylan

With The Band

January 3, 1974: following on the release of his and The Band’s Planet Waves album, the Tour ’74 began. The tour began in Chicago. (see May 9)

William Zantzinger

January 3, 2009: William Zantzinger died. In 2001, Zantzinger had discussed Dylan’s song Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll with Howard Sounes for Down the Highway, the Life of Bob Dylan. Zantzinger dismissed the song as a “total lie” and claimed “It’s actually had no effect upon my life,” but expressed scorn for Dylan, saying, “He’s a no-account son of a bitch, he’s just like a scum of a scum bag of the earth, I should have sued him and put him in jail.” [LA Times obit] (see October 16, 2016)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

January 3, 1961: President Dwight D. Eisenhower closed the American embassy in Havana and severed diplomatic relations. The action signaled that the US was prepared to take extreme measures to oppose Castro’s regime, which U.S. officials worried was a beachhead of communism in the western hemisphere.(see Feb 18)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Nuclear accident

January 3, 1961: Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. A steam explosion in reactor SL-1 during preparation for start-up destroyed a small US Army experimental reactor and killed three operators. (see Jan 24)

START

January 3, 1993: George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). (see Jan 19)

Iran

January 3, 2020:  BBC News reported that Iran had resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity, in its most significant breach yet of the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei told Mehr news agency that the process had started at the underground Fordo plant. Iran had suspended a number of commitments since the US abandoned the nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions. (next N/C N, see Jan 15)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Politics

January 3, 1964: Senator Barry Goldwater announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for President.

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Jack Ruby

January 3, 1967: waiting in prison for a retrial date, Jack Ruby died of lung cancer.

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

Witherspoon v. Illinois

January 3, 1968: in Witherspoon v. Illinois  the Supreme Court ruled that the practice of excluding prospective jurors who have reservations about the death penalty from capital trials resulted in juries whose sentencing decisions could be considered biased and therefore unconstitutional. (see February 18, 1972)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

January 3, 1968: Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. McCarthy had been a contender to be President Lyndon B. Johnson’s running mate in the 1964 election, but since then he had become increasingly disenchanted with Johnson’s policies in Vietnam and the escalation of the war. In 1967, he had published The Limits of Power, an assessment of U.S. foreign policy that was very critical of the Johnson administration. When announcing his candidacy, McCarthy said he hoped to harness the growing antiwar sentiment in the country, particularly among the young. (see Jan 5)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

January 3, 1975: the US Government had interned Norman Minetta, as a child as part of the Japanese-American evacuation and internment during World War II. On this date, Minetta took his seat in the House of Representatives. representing the San Jose, California area. He served in the House until 1995 and later served as Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton (2000–2001) and then Secretary of Transportation under President George W. Bush (2001–2006). (see JI for expanded chronology)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

January 3, 1996:  the first mobile flip phone, the Motorola StarTAC, goes on sale. (see April 20, 1999)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Medical Marijuana Act

January 3, 2006: Rhode Island’s Senate Bill 0710 (the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act) tooks effect immediately upon passage on January 3, 2006. The law removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess “written certification” from their physician… [and] establishes a mandatory, confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients.(see April 20 or see CCC for expanded modern chronology)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

January 3, 2007: death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reaches 3,000. (see Jan 10)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Volunteerism

January 3, 2008: the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported that about 60.8 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2006 and September 2007,

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Occupy Wall Street

January 3, 2012: approximately 200 Occupy protesters performed a flash mob at the main concourse of New York’s Grand Central Terminal in protest against President Obama’s signing the National Defense Authorization Act. Video (see Jan 25)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

January 3, 2013: British doctors discharged fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban in October and brought to Britain for treatment, She was due to be re-admitted in late January or early February for reconstructive surgery to her skull. (Feminism, see Jan 9; Yousufzai, see Jan 10)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

STAND YOUR GROUND LAWS

January 3, 2013: research from Texas A&M University reported that over a 10-year period there was an 8 percent increase in homicides in the states that passed Stand Your Ground laws. The law did not deter burglary, robbery or assault either. “These laws lower the cost of using lethal force,” said Mark Hoekstra, an economist with Texas A&M University who examined stand your ground laws. “Our study finds that, as a result, you get more of it.” (see Feb 4)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

January 3, 2014: the U.S. government asked the Supreme Court not to allow Roman Catholic-affiliated groups a temporary exemption from a part of the Obamacare healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies covering contraception. Now that the court has received the government’s filing, Sotomayor – or the nine justices if she chose to refer it to the whole court – would decide whether the injunction should be extended while the case continues in lower courts. There was no deadline by which the court has to act. (see Jan 14)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

January 3, 2017: Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Motel 6, alleging motel employees gave private information on thousands of guests to U.S. immigration authorities.

Ferguson told reporters that employees of the national budget chain divulged the names, birth dates, driver’s license numbers, license-plate numbers and room numbers of more than 9,000 guests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The agents did not have warrants.

The lawsuit said the motel employees’ actions violated state consumer-protection law.

Washington’s Supreme Court established that guest-registry information is private, Ferguson said, and Motel 6 violated the law each time it gave out private information. (next IH, see Jan 8; Motel 6, see April 4, 2019)

January 3 Peace Love Art Activism

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

January 2, 1839: photography pioneer Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of the moon. see March 30, 1842)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Industrial Union Manifesto

January 2, 1905: conference of 23 industrial unionists in Chicago issued an Industrial Union Manifesto calling for an industrial Union Congress to be held in Chicago June 27. (see Mar 20)

AFL v. American Sash & Door Co

January 2, 1949: in AFL v. American Sash & Door Co, the US Supreme Court ruled against the closed shop, a labor-management agreement that only union members could be hired and must remain members to continue on the job. (see Oct 2)

Sago Mine explosion

January 2, 2006: an underground explosion at Sago Mine in Tallmansville, W. Va., trapped 12 miners and cut power to the mine. Eleven men died, mostly by asphyxiation. The mine had been cited 273 times for safety violations over the prior 23 months. (NYT editorial) (see May 1)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

January 2, 1910: from the New York Times: “Miss Alice Paul of Philadelphia, the suffragette who on December 9 was released from Holloway Jail after serving one month’s imprisonment for her share in the suffragette demonstration at the Lord Mayor’s banquet at the Guildhall, will sail for America some day next week.” On November 11, 1909, UK police had arrested Paul for throwing stones through a window at the Guildhall while the Lord Mayor’s banquet was in Progress. Inside the hall, Lucy Burns found Winston Churchill, waved a tiny banner in his face, and asked him, “How can you dine here while women are starving in prison?” (next Feminism see In February 1910)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Palmer Raids

January 2, 1920: over 500 government agents acting on direction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer carried out a massive counter-terror operation in 33 US cities, arresting between six and ten thousand aliens suspected of Communism, radicalism and anarchism. The “Palmer Raids” and the detentions and deportation proceedings that followed them were denounced by a number of prominent lawyers and judges who later established the American Civil Liberties Union. (see December 25, 1921)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

Sam Carter lynched

January 2, 1923: a mob of white men kidnapped, tortured, and lynched Sam Carter, a black craftsman from Rosewood, on suspicion that he had helped Jesse Hunter escape. White men continued to terrorize Rosewood searching for Hunter and black residents armed themselves in defense. [Black Past report] (next BH, RR, and Lynching, see Jan 4; see AL3 for expanded chronology of early 20th century lynching)

Willie James Howard

January 2, 1944 15-year-old Willie James Howard, a black boy, was kidnapped and lynched by three white men in Suwannee County, Florida, after being accused of sending a love note to the daughter of one of the men.

During Christmas 1943, Willie Howard sent cards to all of his co-workers at the Van Priest Dime Store in Live Oak, Florida. Unlike the other cards, Willie’s card to Cynthia Goff, a white store employee, revealed a youthful crush. His greeting expressed hope that white people would someday like black people and concluded: “I love your name. I love your voice. For a S.H. [sweetheart] you are my choice.”

After reading the card, Cynthia’s father, Phil Goff, brought two friends to the Howard home and demanded to see Willie. Despite his mother’s pleading, the men dragged Willie away, and then kidnapped Willie’s father, James Howard, from work. The men drove the two Howards to the embankment of the Suwanee River, bound Willie’s hands and feet, stood him at the edge of the water, and told him to either jump or be shot. Willie jumped into the cold water below and drowned while his father was forced to watch at gunpoint. Willie’s body was pulled from the river the next day.

Goff and his accomplices admitted to the local sheriff that they took Willie to the river to punish him, but claimed the teen had become hysterical and jumped into the water unprovoked at the thought of being whipped by his father. Fearful for his own life and the other members of his family, James Howard signed a statement supporting Goff’s account. He and his family fled Live Oak three days later. [PBS report] (next BH, see Feb 16; next Lynching, see March 26; for expanded chronology of lynching, see also AL4)

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR

January 2, 1965: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. announced the beginning of a new campaign to help register African-American voters in Selma, Alabama. Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark did his best to stop that. Over the next two months, more than 2,000 people were arrested for attempting to register or encouraging others to vote. (BH, see Jan 11; MLK, see Jan 18)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Fourth Amendment

January 2, 1952: Rochin v. California. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies entered Antonio Rochin’s residence without a warrant in early July 1949. Rochin swallowed some pills, and police took him to the emergency room where he was forcibly induced to vomit them up. The pills were morphine and were later used to convict him. The Supreme Court, in Rochin v. California, unanimously overturned his conviction ruling that the methods used to obtain the evidence “shocks the conscience” and violated the due process clause.

The Court: ” . . . we are compelled to conclude that the proceedings by which this conviction was obtained do more than offend some fastidious squeamishness or private sentimentalism about combating crime too energetically. This is conduct that shocks the conscience. Illegally breaking into the privacy of the petitioner, the struggle to open his mouth and remove what was there, the forcible extraction of his stomach’s contents – this course of proceeding by agents of government to obtain evidence is bound to offend even hardened sensibilities. They are methods too close to the rack and the screw to permit of constitutional differentiation.”(see May 23, 1957)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race

January 2, 1959: Luna 1 launched from the Soviet Union towards the moon but misses its target. The Soviets had launched lunar probes in 1958 but not announced to the public or acknowledged. This set a pattern for the Soviet space program: missions were not announced until they could be hailed as successes. (see Mar 3)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

JFK announces candidacy 

January 2, 1960, John F Kennedy announced his candidacy for President.

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War 

FREE SPEECH

January 2, 1962: the folk singing group, The Weavers, which had been attacked in the 1950s for the leftist political views of its members, was barred from appearing on the late-night Jack Paar Show (predecessor to The Tonight Show) for refusing to sign a loyalty oath.

Other musicians with left-wing histories also had problems appearing on network television in the 1950s and 1960s because of their political views: Pete Seeger (September 14, 1963); Joan Baez (March 20, 1963).

The insidious aspect of all the loyalty oaths of the Cold War era was that they had nothing to do with any specific criminal or unprofessional conduct on the part of individuals required to sign them. (CW, see Feb 10; FS, see June 25, 1963)

SALT II/Nuclear News

January 2, 1980: in a strong reaction to the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter asked the Senate to postpone action on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty and recalled the U.S. ambassador to Moscow. These actions sent a message that the age of detente and the friendlier diplomatic and economic relations that were established between the US and Soviet Union during President Richard Nixon’s administration (1969-74) had ended. (CW, see Jan 26; NN, see March 9, 1981)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

January  2 Music et al

19 attend Beatle concert

January 2, 1963: 19 people attend their concert in Dingwall. (see Jan 11)

January 2 – 8, 1965: Elvis Presley’s Roustabout soundtrack the Billboard #1 album. (see Aug 27)

January 2, 1969: police seized 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins’ at Newark Airport on the grounds that its cover photograph was deemed pornographic. (read more at John Yoko Two Virgins)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Battle of Ap Bac

January 2, 1963: Battle of Ap Bac. Against overwhelming odds, the Viet Cong achieved their first major victory. They successfully stopped the well-equipped South Vietnamese army, supported by a combination of artillery and armored units as well as American air power. The Viet Cong lost 18 soldiers killed and 39 wounded, although hit by more than 600 rounds of artillery, napalm and other ordnance released by 13 warplanes and five UH-1 gunships. Three American advisors died. (NYT article) (see Apr 11)

Bucher v. Selective System Local Boards

January 2, 1970: the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Bucher v. Selective System Local Boards that it was illegal for draft boards to punitively reclassify anti-Vietnam War protesters. The Rev. Henry Hale Bucher and other protesters had turned in their draft cards to protest the Vietnam War, leaving them in violation of Selective System regulations, and they were then punitively reclassified as A-1 Delinquent by their local draft boards, meaning they were top priority for being drafted. The local boards acted according to Memorandum 85, issued by the Director of the Selective Service System on October 24, 1967.

The Court of Appeals ruled that the punitive reclassification constituted “summary punishment,” in violation of the constitutional guarantees of due process in the Fifth and Sixth Amendments (trial by jury, assistance of counsel, etc.), and that the delinquency procedures used against the plaintiffs were not authorized by the 1967 Military Selective Service Act. (see Feb 9)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

Cigarette advertising ban

January 2, 1971: a federal ban on T.V. cigarette ads went into effect.(see October 28, 1974)

Vaping sales limited

January 2, 2020: federal officials said they would forbid the sale of most flavored e-cigarette cartridges, but would exempt menthol and tobacco flavors, as well as flavored liquid nicotine sold in open tank systems at vape shops.

The policy reflected a partial victory for vaping industry groups, but also seemed aimed at appeasing parents (including the crucial voting bloc of suburban mothers) and public health officials worried about nicotine addiction among teenagers. [NYT article] (next CR, see November 3, 2023)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

January 2, 1975: there was no news of Patty Hearst as the date for the final ransom payment of $2 million passed. (see Hearst for expanded chronology)

January 2 Peace Love Art Activism